Conversion to Physical

Truth is not always seen when shown, and not always loved when seen.

--Gladstone

Can the prophet ever be honored at home? Part of the challenge of converting friends & family to precious metal ownership is just that—it requires a conversion. But it is different than a conversion, lets say, from being a Catholic to being a Baptist, or from apostasy to any religion. Within the bounds of western societies, these are perfectly normal and expected conversions. A guy gets married and starts going to church with his more religious wife. A teenager finds Jesus and attends the youth group at the local church. Today, these are common and acceptable conversions and indeed my own parents breathed a sigh of relief when I started going to church instead of hanging out with my troublemaker friends.

No, converting to precious metals is more like converting from Islam to Christianity, or vice versa. It has to be complete and it could cost you much. Those who talk too much about their conversion to family & friends are often alienated. But, you are literally saving your soul from the hell of poverty and destitution…that is if you believe in societal collapse, or even economic impoverishment as a nation. With conversion to precious metals, you cross a line. You are putting your labor-wages into true money that will survive whatever hell may be approaching us.

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Paper or physical?

You will love one and hate the other. Once you leave the paper system and start dabbling in physical, you either get sucked all the way in, with every extra labor-fiat unit going into physical and living for the future, or you can’t see the future you are avoiding and “sellout” going back into paper and living for the moment. Though I have advocated keeping a foot in both worlds earlier, I freely admit that I only keep enough paper to function normally in this paper society and as much as possible is stored in physical. I also define “physical” not as AU & AG only, but any physical commodity that will hold its value through economic turmoil. If you are buying land and raising goats, I tip my hat to you. You are actually a step ahead of me.

So we have a problem as those committed to physical wealth. We love people who are immersed in paper and do not realize their peril. One of our members put it succinctly:

“I've given up trying to awaken friends, neighbors and extended family. I've found it's a waste of time and it simply pisses me off that folks won't consider an opinion that is counter to their comfortable notion of how the world works. I'm reminded of the old saying: It's like teaching pigs to sing, it doesn't work and it only annoys the pigs.” -- GuerrillaCapitalist

Though I share the same frustrations and cannot disagree, I am not ready to give up on them yet! Love constrains me to keep trying. But how do you get past the barriers?

First, as a student of persuasion, I have chosen to Use what we call “invitational rhetoric” where the persuader presents a case, but does not compel a person to action. Once a person sees the truth, and understands why following the logical actions that truth would dictate is the wisest course of action, they must make that decision for themselves. If I use all my rhetorical tricks to goad them into action, I risk ruining a relationship and I risk that they will go back to paper after I go away. But one rhetorical strategy is often very successful and forces a person to come to terms with truth in their own mind—initiate cognitive dissonance: the excessive mental stress and discomfort experienced by an individual who … is confronted by new information that conflicts with existing beliefs, ideas, or values. Simply provide enough truth--truth that cannot be dismissed--and let the receiver argue it out in their own mind.

We have discussed this issue at length on this blog and the most productive method appears to come through simply giving the gift of metal while explaining the nature of fiat. I successfully converted my history colleague next door by letting him fondle an eagle I keep in my pocket. He already knew about fiat and reserve currencies and the history of monetary evolution. He bought five eagles within a couple of weeks and began making regular purchases, asking me where to buy. My kids decided to buy physical after seeing their dad buy and count it on the kitchen table. There is nothing like the heft of precious metals in one’s hand.

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With Eagles in the low twenties, why not give a gift of an Eagle and a hand-written appeal encouraging your friend to take a small step in converting. Ironically, the argument that “Everyone is doing it.” may be the most logical and heaviest reason to buy gold. By over 4 to one, more world citizens see metals as money than see paper as money.